The Video Activist Network

VAN Members

This is a partial list of the members of the Video Activist Network, located in the greater Bay Area of Northern California. Not all members have their own website or wish to be listed prominently, so this page is not all-inclusive. There are other networks of video activists all over the world, and there are also other email lists out there. Links to many of these websites and lists can be found in the VAN Links page.

If you would like to join the VAN email list, click here. (Note: This list is focused on video activism, not general news.)

Mike Alcalay
Interests: Radio Producer @ KPFA; into "Street Video"

Francisco Anieto
Interests: Produced video about the United Farm Workers.

Sean Brennan
Interests: Critical Mass videographer.
e-mail

Fred Cook / Comprehensive Communications
Interests: Experienced videographer and producer in San Francisco.

Matt Dott
Interests: Experienced copwatcher, works with San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.

Jesse Drew
Interests: Video Production; Media Criticism; New Technologies; Labor. Works with Mission Creek Video and Paper Tiger Television
e-mail

Bernie Fox
Interests: Video as a progressive political tool on issues of social/economic justice, I use non-linear editing at home, I am interested in working with other political video activists to share resources and skills and LEARN.
e-mail
ICQ #4022706

David Grace
Interests: Produces show on San Francisco Cable Ch. 53 called "Money Talks" (4th Wednesdays @ 8pm, also on Revolutionary People's Talk Show, 1st Mondays @ 11pm); labor, environment, poverty, economics & alternatives (WTO, IMF, etc).

Ayellett Hai
Interests: Uses Adobe Premiere to create short pieces - the clips are from popular media, the music is original by her friend Gadi. Also a graphic designer who produces flyers and tape covers.

Headwaters Action Video Collective (HAVC)
Interests: Headwaters forest defense. Located in Humboldt county. Producers of Luna, Fire in the Eyes, and their newest video called Timber Gap. Videographers at the WTO. Co-produced the WTO video Showdown in Seattle. Worked on Breaking the Bank. Currently working on a new film called Tree Sit.
e-mail

Lina Hoshino / Kozaru Productions
Media activist/Believes in power of videos, multimedia, and the internet as effect tools to resist corporate globalization and to empower grassroots efforts and people of color. Co-produced segments for Showdown in Seattle and Breaking the Bank. Co-creator of www.whirledbank.org and www.globalarcade.org.

Mike Kavanagh / Agitspin Productions
Interests: Produced "Redwood Summer" featuring the late and great EarthFirst! activist Judi Bari, and "Defend the Hood" about Gentrification in San Francisco's Mission District. Videographer at the WTO. Works closely with Whispered Media.

Gloria LaRiva
Interests: Produced videos on Kosovo and US Sanctions against Iraq. Works with People's Video Network SF
e-mail

Carla Leshne
Interests: Has done work over the past 15 years around homelessness, militarism, prison industry. Videos include Across from City Hall, Lies, SF Says No, Boiling Point, USA on Trial, Street Sheet, USA INCarcerated. Involved with public access cable TV, Paper Tiger TV collective, and Deepdish Television Network.
e-mail

Sasha Magee
Interests: Globalization, Labor, Prison Industrial Complex. Works with Red Menace. Produced video about Critical Resistance. Worked on Breaking the Bank.
e-mail

Jason Meggs
Interests: Bike Activist, Critical Mass videographer.
e-mail

Karen Martin
Interests: police brutality, political prisoners, Latin America, etc. Footage of SF Dyke March 99, Dec. 1999 in Seattle (WTO). Other people who have some of my footage: Jason Meggs (J18 1999) and Whispered Media. I'm also a still photographer and an organizer.

Hugh Mejia
Interests: Homeless issues, Food Not Bombs. Has years of FNB SF footage.
e-mail

Mark Motyka
Interests: Critical Mass copwatcher extraordinaire. Videographer at the WTO. Produced "Car Mass" which won 2nd prize in the BFBC film festival in February 2000. List Master for the VAN email list serve. Currently working on video about the WTO. VAN members offered access to his footage library.
e-mail

Eddy Nix
Interests: IMC's, globalization, biological models for social movements, genetics and pies. Worked on Prague IMC's video about the S26 protests in 2000.
e-mail

Doug Norberg
Interests: Public access cable television; activist documentary production for schools. Works with San Francisco youth on Collision Course Video Productions. Produced Viva la Causa, 500 Years of Chicano History (versions available in both English and Spanish).
e-mail

Andy Rose
Interests: Homeless issues, non -violent movements. San Francisco Food Not Bombs webmaster. Works with Alternatives To Violence Program.
e-mail

Lisa Rudman
Interests: Works with Paper Tiger Television SF. Currently works at National Radio Project's Making Contact

Angelo Sacerdote
Interests: Food, organic farming, biotechnology, industrial agriculture. Videographer at the WTO. Co-produced the WTO video Showdown in Seattle. Worked on Breaking the Bank. Currently working on a documentary called "Fed Up!" Also, recently posted a new website - wholesomegoodness.org.

Chris Schafer
Interests: Environment, Video Witnessing. Videographer at the WTO. Berkeley Videoagrapher and Producer of 20 minute video called "WTO Turnaround in Seattle"

Joel Schor
Interests: Member of the Marine Division of the ILWU and local labor activist. Programs "Labor Ahead T.V." on Berkeley Cable channel 25, airs LIVE Thursday nites from 6:30 to 7pm starting March 2nd, 2000. Upcoming shows will feature updates on the South Carolina longshore workers battle with the police over the right to picket Danish shipping lines, rebel carpenters expelled from union for calling wildcat strike, Mexican working class struggles to keep public education at UNAM under attacks by privitazation schemes on behalf of the ruling party in power, and some footage from the end of the millenium - labor activism at the Seattle WTO.
e-mail

Chris Shine
Interests: Videographer at the WTO. Works with Michele Shine Media.
e-mail

Sleeping Giant

Margot Smith
Videomaker on health care, women's issues, collectives and political action.
Check Off Center Video. Off Center Video is a committee of the Berkeley Gray Panthers.

Jen Schradie/Anthill Productions Director and Producer of "The Golf War" and various documentaries on African-American/Southern Labor issues. Organizer of grassroots media distribution and freelance writer.

Studio 220 Film Collective Studio 220 Film Collective is a new media collective dedicated to gathering film footage of events, actions, drama, productions and other creative expressions related to the new social justice movement.

Saskia Traill Interests: social well-being, labor, media, economic globalization, learning more about video, doing interviews. worked on Breaking the Bank.

Bruce Valde
Interests: Has footage from the Ward Valley Occupation and general Native resistance. Works at Save Ward Valley office with Green Action.
e-mail

Videology
Interests: Prison Industrial Complex. Produced video about Critical Resistance. Works with Paper Tiger Television SF
e-mail

Whispered Media
Interests: Hosting VAN website. Video witnessing at demonstrations and actions, video screenings, supporting other video activists. Produced The Pie's the Limit. Videographers at the WTO. Co-produced the WTO video Showdown in Seattle. Produced two segments for Breaking the Bank.
e-mail

Steve Zeltzer
Interests: Has labor footage from around the world, including Korean General Strike. Member of the Union Producers & Programmers Network. Works with The Labor Video Project. This summer, check out the LaborFest Film & Video Festival.
e-mail

Hey folks, are any of your links no longer working? Do you want your info up here? Please e-mail us at: info@videoactivism.org.